Volkswagen has revealed an SUV concept at the Beijing motor show 2016, badged the T-Prime Concept GTE. The concept previews the next-gen Touareg which, as per Volkswagen, will sit atop the company's five-strong future SUV line-up.
Based on the MLB platform, the production SUV is expected to share many of its mechanical and technical components with other models also sitting on the same platform such as the new Audi Q7 and the new Bentley Bentayga while upcoming models such as the Lamborghini Urus and the new Porsche Cayenne are slated to use a shorter iteration of the platform.
As indicated by the concept, the styling for the new Touareg is expected to be in-line with the new Phideon revealed earlier this year at the Geneva motor show. The concept portrays an aggressive design with its large chromed-out grille with an integrated LED bar, neatly integrated LED headlamps, prominent character lines and large wheelhouses featuring 22-inch wheels.
In terms of dimensions, sitting at 5,069mm long, 2,000mm wide and 1,708mm tall, the T-Prime is 269mm longer and 60mm wider than the current Touareg.
Inside the cabin, the concept SUV features a four seat layout along with a dashboard featuring the use of multiple screens. There is an all-digital instrument cluster and a large 15-inch centrally located touchscreen display that acts as a command centre for many of the vehicles functions, thereby reducing the need for dials and buttons. Also included is a newly developed multi-function steering wheel with touch pads similar to those adopted by the latest Mercedes-Benz E-class.
The new T-Prime Concept GTE is powered by a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid powertrain in-line with the ones used on the Golf GTE and Passat GTE. The SUV concept uses a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that develops 251hp paired with a 136hp electric motor integrated into the front of the T-Prime concept’s eight-speed automatic gearbox.
Altogether, the combustion engine and electric motor provide a combined system output of 381hp and 700Nm of torque. This makes it 1hp and 121NM more powerful than the existing Touareg petrol-hybrid, which uses a combination of a supercharged 3.0-litre V6 and an electric motor.
The batteries are located under the luggage compartment and can be charged via a standard 240-volt mains connection at 3.6kW or via a high-powered 400-volt charger at 7.2kW. The former provides a full charge in eight hours, while the latter is claimed to top the battery up in two-and-a-half hours.
The SUV offers three drive modes: E-mode, Hybrid and GTE. In E-mode, the electric motor does all the work and grants the car a range of 50km with all-wheel drive. Hybrid mode combines the efforts of the petrol engine and electric motor while GTE mode uses the electric motor to boost performance of the petrol engine.
Volkswagen will bring the next-gen Touareg to India following its global reveal in production guise as part of the company’s plan to offer more SUV models. The first of these new SUV models will be the Tiguan, which is expected in 2017 followed by production versions of many of its recently revealed concepts such as the entry-level T-Cross and T-Roc compact SUVs.
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